Swiped from Chatty, who stole it from Nat.

Play along if you wish. Here are the specifics:

To do this yourself:

Type your answer to the questions into a flickr search

Using only the first page, pick an image

Copy and paste each of the urls in the Mosaic Maker

1. What is your first name?

2. What is your favorite food?

3. What high school did you go to?

4. What is your favorite color?

5. Who is your celebrity crush?

6. What is your favorite drink?

7. What is your dream vacation?

8. What is your favorite dessert?

9. What do you want to do when you grow up?

10. Who/ what do you love most in life?

11. Choose one word that describes you?

12. What is your Flickr name?

If you decided to play along, let me know in the comments so I can check it out!

Here’s my Mosaic

So yeah I have been here since Saturday morning… somewhere around 8am. I think I have slept twice. Pretty sure that makes it Monday. Must be Monday actually since my brothers have gone home and back to work. The kids have been havin’ lots of fun Papa took The Karate Kid out for a little spin in the boat after the big kids went tubing so I got some time to just float for a bit.. I think it is the first time I got to just swim and not worry in years. Made me a little sad. Cuz that means it has been years since The Mr and I have been up here for any extended amount of time together. *sigh* We are hoping that next year we will be able to take a week together.

On the agenda today? More of the same swimmin’ sunnin’ and floatin’. Rains are coming again tonight some time...with the thunder-boomers…

Oh the kicker! Kinda funny. When I was a kid without a really decent camera we were here during a full moon. I guess I was about the age where something like that would suddenly be appreciated. Anyway it was amazing when the moon came up with the reflection on the water looking like a golden path up to the heavens or some magically place. So every year I check to see when there will be a full moon and if I will be here during so I can get a better picture. Also a year or so ago my Dad gave me his tripod which has been stored in my truck since. The point of all this drivel? Well we had a full moon this weekend! Yeah! I missed it coming up because I was tending to the Karate Kid… And? well I took the tripod out of my truck when I was packing and decided I wasn’t going to need it. Ah well There will be other years right? And I still have those 110 pictures to look back on.

And really, we can’t afford to just throw good money away, right? Besides I could use a laugh or two… or twenty!!

The Karate Kid is doing great. He decided a few days ago that he was going to do all the glucose checking on his own. So he is doing his own finger pricks and using the monitor and then I record the results and give him his insulin. This is a big step for him and it was all his own idea so I am pretty excited and proud about that. Funny how the little guy who just a month ago was crying because he was going to have to go to his primary care dr for a check up and had to have blood taken from his finger for the usual checks. He asked me today if perhaps they will let him do it himself next check up. The mark the nurse left on July 15th has finally healed up. I am sure that had a lot to do with how dehydrated he was and all the other symptoms that went with it.

We got a copy of one of the letters sent to Karate Kids primary and it had a lot of info I didn’t know or didn’t remember because that first night is such a blur. I do remember his BG count was around 990. His A1C test was over 11% (a healthy person should be around 4 or 5% I think) don’t know about the Ketones. I know that it was high.

And we got the orders for the school nurse for the beginning of the school year. I will have to pick up some supplies and refill some prescriptions… probably will do that tomorrow because I am going to need some things before we go away. I am really nervous about that too. Being in the middle of nowhere is really great, but being in the middle of nowhere with a newly diagnosed diabetic… not so much. Mentally I am equipped. I have all the tools and the instructions to care for him. Emotionally I am a wreck. One of the big things my family loves to do on vacation is eat… and not a lot of good stuff. It is going to be difficult trying to balance all that. I’m not really all that worried about that, because he knows how to balance his carbs himself. Tonight for instance he decided to forgo the chocolate milk so he could have a little ice cream. The lows are what scare me. What could happen during the lows terrifies me. Then again on the bright side we will be vacationing with my BIL who is a paramedic.

I don’t even know where I was going with this post. I am constantly looking for silver linings. They are there… I see them. Still… if I was offered a do-over for this year I would so take it!!

So about two months ago, before Karate Kid’s diagnosis, The Mr.  tries to get something at the store and his debit card doesn’t work. It is pretty worn out on the back, so they tried to key it by hand. It came up declined. He comes home and tells me and I, of course, have a fit. I go back with him and use my debit card because I know there is money in there and it goes through fine. I begin to wonder if this has something to do with the fact that the bank account for the store was overdrawn because of fees (the loan bank kept trying to get their money even after we forfeited the store). I tell him next chance he gets he should get a new one. Course with the possiblity that it is because of the overdrawn account he puts this off. This is a real pain in the ass because he has to use mine and I end up without it for days on end. So we get notice that the business account is closed and the have notified the interested reporting agencies etc. They won’t be after us any longer for that. So then The Mr tries his card again… and again no luck. So on the next free day he had (which was yesterday) he went down to get a new card. He goes to the teller who tells him there is some kind of alert on the card. He is sent over to the asst manager who tells him the card was canceled because someone used it to try to buy something in Amsterdam for $2500… Luckily there wasn’t enough money in the account to cover it so it was flagged and viewed as suspicious. It may be that his card number was stolen after shopping at Hannafords, but we can’t find any proof that he actually shopped there with the debit card.. so who knows. Anyway they issued him a new card. I have looked over our statements and there is nothing out of the ordinary there. I guess we got lucky!!

Calgon take me away! It is horrible to feel so exhausted that you know you can drift off any minute only to have a noise (the air conditioner kicking on or off or something outside the window) snap you away and send your heart racing. Sometimes it isn’t worth just laying there. It gets to be too frustrating and so I get up and do whatever I can quietly so as to not wake anyone up..or if I do tough it out I end up wide awake when The Mr leaves for work and go through the same thing all over again… course I am a raving bitch the next day either way. The other nasty side-affect? I can completely space out and not even realize what is going on around me. The other night we went out to dinner and I was waiting for something and The Mr and our son walked away a bit and after a few minutes I realized that my daughter was actually talking to me. I think I hurt her feeling pretty good, too. & That really sucks! I appoligized and she said it was ok, but I still didn’t seem to thrilled with me. Not that I can blame her. She has been forced to take a back seat over the last couple weeks because of everything with her brother. I hoping that The Mr can get a day off next week so that I can take her to a movie and we can have some mom & daughter time. We haven’t done that in a real long time!!

One good thing to come out of the whole insomnia thing is the new design I am converting. It was written for Wordpress and that can be such a pain in the ass to convert to EE, but it actually hasn’t been too bad, even if I am up at 2am playing with it. You can get a sneak peak here. It is still a long way from finished, and I still have to build the other templates to go with it but I am liking how it is shaping up. Let me know what you think. There are still a few quirks to work out. Like the date disappearing from every post but the first. I am sure there is just a tag out of place somewhere. I haven’t checked other browser either, just FF. Don’t know if I will either, I guess that will depend on the insomia....

But my kitchen looks wonderful… too bad I can’t raise my arms. I will honestly destroy the next person who doesn’t clean up after his/herself. I don’t care which of them it is!

The bathroom is next, but that will have to wait until Friday. Tomorrow we meet with out Nurse Educator to learn more on the ins and outs of insulin dosage. Can’t wait!! After that I won’t have to call in every night and talk to someone different about my son, answer the same questions I answered the night before and then have then mess with something, only to change it back the next night. *sigh* One more night of that, hopefully I will get our educator again tonight (Talked with her last night) she is the only who really made me feel confident. 

His weight is improving. When we went to the doctors on the 15th, he weighed 50lbs. Sunday at my parents house he was up to 57lbs. He has always been slim, but he had been looking more thin than normal. I guess I should back up some and start at the beginning. 

His weight was one of my concerns, add to that the fact that he wanted to eat constantly, was peeing constantly and couldn’t get enough to drink. The weekend before the appointment he had trouble sleeping. He was due for a check up for school and I was planning on taking care of that in August, because of money things, but when my sister asked if he had ever been tested for diabetes I decided to make the appointment asap. They didn’t get around to testing his urine until after we had left, so when I got home there was a message for me to call them. When I called the doctor told me I could go in to the office to have a blood draw to test him, but given the results of the urine test he was certain that he would be sending us to Children’s Hospital’s Emergency Room after so he said to go ahead on up there and he would call ahead. It was kind of surreal. We hit the grocery store before coming home and then I called The Mr to see what he was doing, when I picked up the phone to call him I noticed we had a voice-mail message. So after talking to The Mr and joking around with him I called the Dr and then called The Mr back asking him to come home right then. He could tell there was something wrong because of my voice and I broke down. I got Drama Queen to fix The Karate Kid his dinner, and attempted to pull myself together. The Mr called back from his truck and asked me to explain again since I was crying through most of it, I explained and turned to find the Karate Kid behind me. He didn’t like hearing that he had to go to the hospital and cried “What’s wrong with me?” That killed me. I got him calmed down and had him eat. The Mr and grabbed BK on the way out, but I had a hard time eating it. We got to the hospital around 7:45pm and they took us right in. He was hooked up to two IVs. One for fluids and evenutally Insulin. And the other for drawing blood which they did every hour on the hour all night long. We were in the ER until after midnight. The whole time we were there he wanted something to drink and they couldn’t give it to him. They did let him have one cup of ice chips, but they needed to be sure their counts were accurate I guess. I hated every minute of this night. There was nothing I could do to make my baby better, or even more comfortable. They told us he had DKA Actually we saw three doctors in the ER who told us this.. one was a resident, the second a guy chewing cinnamon gum was an attending and then a doctor on the Endocrine team who followed us to the ICP to care for him through out the night. We saw so many nurses and doctors that I couldn’t remember anyone’s name, I am sure that stress and exhaustion had a lot to do with that!! We were in the ICP until just after noon and then he was moved to the 7th floor. Here we saw more nurses and doctors. He got poked and prodded all day long by the best of them.. and the students too. He handled it all like a pro! Course by Friday he was feeling back to his old ornery self and was getting a little flip about all the poking etc. Wednesday we started our learning. We sat down with a nurse educator, a nutritionist, and the Endocrine Team. All of whom decided they loved our son. Not a surprise! Thursday evening a woman from the gift shop came in with a stuffed monkey that FIL & SMIL had sent. He slept with him that night. Friday we got ready to go, and after a little confusion about the prescriptions (all of which had to be filled before we could be released - there is a CVS Pharmacy in the lobby) we were sent on our way. We pulled out of the parking garage around 3:30, and pulled into our driveway just before 6. We got stuck in Cape traffic ugh! So we missed my brother’s wedding rehearsal & dinner, but I was fine with that. And just so very happy to be home even though The Drama Queen spent the night acting out, which was to be expected.
The next day was the wedding. It went ok. It was 100° F out and I got a bit sunburned. The Karate Kid had fun running around and playing with his cousins - Crystal Light in tow. I got most of the pictures they asked for. There are still a lot of ill feelings there for me, but my brother is happy and that is all that matters to me. My Dad still sings this song when they aren’t around

But that is a whole other post for another day! Heh!!

Purging will come later, it is time for his bedtime glucose check & injection.

I am back in the position I was in two years ago wondering what I will find for work.. will I like it… how will it affect the family and everything else. Ugh! Hate it! I have some time to set my mind straight… until then I am going to get all the things done I have been putting off. Both kids need physicals and eye appointments. Both should need new glasses as well. That is going to suck. Should run us around $500 all together. Ugh! There’s our deductible though. Gotta space them out though.

I have to find a way to get rid of some of the store crap. Our register system Quickbooks POS, a computer system, fax/copier/printer. Not sure which is the best way to go. Maybe want ads… Not dealing with shipping on them that is for sure!

Also going to spend some time on a new design here. I want to incorporate my Flickr pictures or maybe create a Gallery again. I have twitter there on the side, it’s kind of blah… some other stuff too. Course if I am working I may not have any time to maintain everything so maybe I shouldn’t bother. I dunno.

Got four birthdays this month… one taken care of the second and third are a double dose… can’t attend the party because of SIL2B’s shower. I have no idea what to get them… and no money to get anything with. I would just give them cash but I know for a fact that SILw/MS will keep it. She has said as much to me at past parties.

Got the bridal shower next Sunday. I gave them their wedding gift months ago when there was an accident in front of my parents house and damage done to both SIL2B’s car and my brothers car. They were upset about having to dig into their wedding fund for this. Turned out they didn’t. Also I had no idea there were plans for big showers/bachelor parties etc. The Mr spent $100 last weekend on the bachelor festivities, that ended lamely because baby bro was afraid SIL2B would be upset. Ugh! I grabbed a couple of cheap gifts for the shower so there was something from me and the drama queen to open… but even that was money I don’t have to spend

Now I gotta come up with $35 for a personal finance course The Mr has to take because he is filing bankruptcy… a course that has to be taken within 45 days of the meeting which is tomorrow… hopefully they will take it after or he will have to refile because he hasn’t done it yet. Pisses me off a bit but I am not going to get into that.

Course the kids are wanting this that and the other thing… and I can’t do it… and I am wondering where the money for school clothes is going to come from.

If only Calgon take me away actually worked… course I can’t afford Calgon, so the point is moot. Heh!

Tuesday night we went up the street to see fireworks! We had a great spot right underneath them. The Karate Kid giggled the whole time.

Yesterday the kids went up the street to the candy store and came home with their cousin in tow. Apparently he was driving by with his father and dad ditched him. At least that is the story he gave. SILw/MS didn’t seem to thrilled about it. Gave me crap on the phone. I nearly hung up on her. Bitch! Wasn’t my idea for your kid to come over here so stick it!

Tonight we are hoping to get up to Plymouth to see the fireworks there. Probably also show The Karate Kid around there (The Rock and Mayflower replica) since he hasn’t been since he was small. Really want to play it by ear because our plans aways manage to go awry some how.

My second youngest brother is planning my baby brother’s bachelor party for tomorrow… and now my sister and BIL are making a special trip down for it, so I will get to hang out with my sis tomorrow… yay!

Small bumps along the way. Only thing that makes me want to move from this town is having SILw/MS living less than a mile away. Ugh!

Don’t have much enthusiasm for writing lately. Mostly because it will all just come out as whiny poor me crap.

I had a minor meltdown the other night and scared my children. I managed to squelch it before it got too bad, but now I feel it lingering at the edges.

Can’t sleep.. tired...discouraged...disgusted...frustrated...fed up.

Blah… Just blah…